Description
The Shivans have captured the Beta Aquilae-Antares jump node. They have been fast enough to already contruct a blockade. You must destroy this blockade and regulate traffic in the area until support arrives.

Storyline:
The storyline isn't <i>bad</i>, per se, but the belivability is lacking. The blockade is discovered by scouts because nothing has been coming through the Antares jump node. Am I the only one who finds it unlikely that not one ship escaped to tell your commanders about the blockade? Isn't it kind of strange that no messages were sent? Why the hell does the Lucifer jump out at the very beginning?

Balance:
The balance all depends on your skills. If you can stand off a weapons platform at just over a click and toss Intercepters and Hornets at the platforms, the initial fighters will be easy to dispose of, and you will just have to keep away from the Lillith till the Orion comes to finish things off. And who can't stand off at a click and a half?

Design:
Design is very amature... to say the least. Aside from the brief cameo of Mr. Lucifer at the very beginning, the mission has three distinct parts. <BR>A)Kill all the fighters, a task quickly accomplished by a decent pilot. <BR>B)Kill the weapons platforms. C)At about 6 minutes into the mission, a Lillith arrives. Stay away from it. D)At 10 minutes, an Orion enters the scene, completing the objective to "hold the node" until reenforcements can come.<br> But why don't they come as soon as the platforms are killed off? Why doesn't the Orion come through the node? Coming out of nowhere means an intersystem jump, and I thought that we were trying to kill the blockade so that ships could enter! Come to think of it, how did the player and his forces enter the fray? If they took a roundabout route to the system through another node, we'd have an explanation for the non-nodal entries, but why not send a bigger force as soon as the Lillith is sighted? There are almost no in-game messages, making the whole thing seem choreographed, especially with the large ships coming in at exact round numbers.

Gameplay:
Just not fun. The dogfight sequence at the beginning is nothing to get excited about, killing weapons platforms at a click isn't terribly exciting, and god knows how wonderful sitting out of reach of a non-moving Lilllith's guns, waiting for an Orion, is.

Other Thoughts:
Yawn.